Spicing Up Chicken Soup

I like spicy food, but real chili peppers put me in a panic. Small, cute...dangerous.

So sure enough, the grab bag that is our CSA turned up a red hot chili. Remaining calm, I carefully picked it up by the stem, dropped it in my "market" bag (a Domino Magazine R.I.P. freebie) and then forgot about it for a week.

As part of the freezer swap (we are loading in anew, but first the hoarded treasures must come out), I had two chicken breasts, bone in skin on, perfect for some soup. I also had a couple late summer ears of corn that needed to find their way into a meal, stat, and that darn little chili. Soup, spicy, chicken, corn...Mexican.

I won't pretend this is a Posole stew, since I didn't have hominy. But fresh corn subbed in nicely.

Spicy Mexican Chicken Soup

Olive oil

1/2 larger onion, diced

1/2 inch of hot red chili, seeded and minced

2 chicken breasts, bone and skin on

Cumin

Salt and Pepper

2 corn cobs, cut off kernels and reserve cobs

5 cups water

1 lime

1/2 tomato

1/2 avocado

4-5 sprigs cilantro

In a dutch oven (or any big heavy pot) drizzle olive oil to cover the bottom (about 2 Tablespoons) and turn the heat to medium-high. Chop up half an onion and mince a very small part of a red hot chili. Saute until they start to look translucent.

Push aside the onion and chili, place the chicken skin side down in the center of the pot. Season the chicken with salt, pepper and a sprinkling of cumin. Cook for about 4 minutes. The skin will begin to look brown. Do not turn it! But add in the two corn cobs and 5 cups water and more salt.

Turn back the heat and cook the chicken at a simmer about 8-10 minutes. Pull a piece of the chicken out and check to see if it is cooked through (white) inside. If done pull out chicken and set aside to cool.

Turn the heat back up and bring the broth to a boil. Cook for 5-8 minutes until it has reduced about an inch down the side of pot. Remove the corn cob and scrape off any corn bits and put them back into the pot.

Meanwhile, remove the skin and shred the chicken into bite-sized pieces. Add the corn kernels in to the soup along with the chicken and turn off the heat. The heat of the broth will cook the kernels perfectly. Squeeze in the juice of one lime. Taste and adjust flavors. I added a little more salt.

Spoon the soup into bowls and add on top tomato, cilantro and avocado.

Cool and Collected

It's mid-summer and the celebrations seem to be piling on faster and faster, squeezed in before the dreaded end-of-fun-times, Labor Day. That means that the weekend found us sharing steak at an unexpected sibling reunion, ribs to celebrate a boys' night in (and this girl's night out), and a burger in honor of a bachelorette.

It was time to detox. I'm not a big fan of "green" juice. I leave the wheat grass for cats.

But much tastier and in a similarly healthy vein of the vegetable mash-up is gazpacho. I make a version that is no where near authentic, but I'm going to call it gazpacho all the same. So there.

Mostly I go for a proportion (so you can make more or less):

3 parts tomato : 1 part green pepper : 1 part cucumber.

So that's 3 medium to larger vine-ripened tomatoes, 1 green pepper, 1 medium cucumber (or 1/2 a big one)

I throw in 3-4 cloves of garlic, a hefty grind of black pepper, salt and 2 Tablespoons each red wine vinegar and olive oil.

If you want a richer tomato flavor, you can add a cup of v-8 juice (I usually don't have any.) A dash of hot sauce can also be nice.

Put all ingredients in the Cuisinart and that's it. Serve cold.

Cool, collected and completely ready for the next end-of-summer chowdown.

Tally:

CSA now stands for Cool Soup Always

So many veggie servings I stopped counting

With some salad or greens, a quick and light dinner

A Summer Soup Break

A few summers ago to be "healthier," I tried to cut corn out of my summer cooking repertoire. What a mistake. Fresh sweet corn offers a special taste of summer goodness that it turns out is actually pretty good for you.

So with a leftover cob and another whole one in the fridge, I thought I'd try my hand at a little chicken and corn soup. Also leftover? Two strips of bacon whose compatriots made my quiche of last week so tasty and the sole survivor of a 3-breast chicken package.

Put it all together and you have a wonderfully rich summer-time lunch. I usually lean on lighter cuisine when the weather is so steamy, but sometimes having something that's not too heavy but still hearty is a nice change of pace.

Corn and Chicken Soup

2 strips smoked bacon, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

1 large onion, diced

2 small potatoes, diced

1 corn cob (leftover, no kernels)

1 whole corn cob

2 cups 1 % milk

1 chicken breast

5-6 leaves basil

Salt

In a larger sauce pan or dutch oven, over high heat start to cook bacon pieces. When they begin to crisp up, add the diced onion and potato. Cook, stirring, until onions are translucent and potatoes are slightly tender. The potato is adding some starchy heft to the broth. You could skip it, but it makes it a little heartier and adds texture.

Meanwhile, cut the chicken breast into three sections (mine was huge.) Place it on top of the onion/bacon mixture and add the milk to cover. Bring to a simmer then lower the heat to keep it just steaming and poach the chicken until cooked the whole way through. (I pulled it out to check.) Mine took about 15 minutes, but it really depends on the size of the breast, so best to check.

Remove the chicken breasts and set aside. Cut the kernels off the whole corn cob. I've seen "easy" ways to do this that involve multiple bowls, etc. Um, no. Just go slow and cut from midway on the cob, downward, on a cutting board with a sharp knife. Then flip the cob upside down and repeat. If you don't get the kernels cut close to the cob, don't worry, you'll get all that goodness out when you...

Add the de-kerneled cobs to the milk-onion-bacon mixture and keep the mixture at a simmer. While the cobs are getting nice and warm, shred the chicken into bite size pieces. Remove the cobs with tongs and hold up on a cutting board. Scrape the cob with a knife to get out all the remnant corn bits and return the bits and their liquid to the pot. Add the chicken and uncooked reserve kernels into the pot. Salt to taste. Simmer 5 minutes. Stir in some basil leaves and serve.

Tally:

Leftover bits and pieces come together for big flavor

A hearty summer soup to break up the lighter fare and fuels some summertime adventures

Corn's sweet summer flavor pops in this soup

Strawberry Soup

Way back in the 80's, perhaps inspired by the culinary successes of a lady from just up the road named Martha, my mother and the neighbor ladies started their own cooking explorations. For my mother, a food-lover for whom cooking delicious meals was a snap, this meant some new ingredients (endive), retiring some standards (Chicken a la King, thank goodness) and taking up the new ideas and reinventions of cookbooks such as The Silver Palate and Martha's own Entertaining.

My favorite dish to emerge from Mom's new cooking was this pretty, pink soup. As a little girl the idea that something tangy and sweet (and the best color ever) could be called soup blew my mind. I requested it as soon as the strawberries were in the supermarket and snuck into the kitchen all summer long for a spoonful or two.

This soup is a great no-cook starter or dessert for a hot day. It's also a nice light lunch alongside a salad, and the perfect excuse to invite over those neighbor ladies. Just be sure to use the good china.

Strawberry Soup

1 pint strawberries, washed, hulled and split in half

1/4 c. orange juice

1 c. 1% milk

1 Tablespoon lemon juice (about one half's worth)

In a blender combine the milk and lemon juice and let it sit for 5 minutes. Behold: you now have buttermilk!

Add strawberries and orange juice and blend it 'til smooth.

Serve chilled in perky, pretty bowls and cups. To be a little naughty, swirl in some sour cream.

Portuguese Kale and Homemade Chorizo Soup

I'm not a shrinking violet when it comes to ground meat and its saucy cousin, sausage. I love me a link or two, and I kind of like the idea that I'm not only getting value and lots of flavor, but also helping to cut down on "waste" when I eat it.

But boy was I surprised when I read the label on my authentic chorizo's packaging. Lymph nodes. Yep, I was grossed out. I'm willing to pitch on waste, but even I have my limits.

So I got to thinking, what is sausage other than ground meat + spices? I have LOTS of spices, and I love using them. And yes, there are mystery parts in prepared ground meats, too, so maybe the effort was fruitless. But it didn't stop me from trying. I found a recipe here. This site's a bit bare bones, but the first recipe called out to me with it's title: quick and easy. Perfect.

Mixing some ground pork with a handful of spices and garlic, then letting it combine in the fridge for several hours couldn't have been easier. Since I didn't have casings, I turned the mixture out from a bread pan and sliced it into squares. It fried up beautifully and I served it as a little nibble for drinks with a Date Onion Confit (chopped rehydrated dates and their soaking water combined with sauteed onions to caramelize + a splash of brandy. Reduce.)

But pork isn't exactly healthy. So what about ground chicken?

Worked like a charm!

Portuguese Kale and Chorizo Soup

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/3 lb. homemade (chicken) chorizo

1 small onion, diced

1/2 lb. kale, bite size pieces, blanched (and in my case, also frozen)

1 teaspoon red wine vinegar

3 cups chicken stock

1 cup water

Heat olive oil in a deep sauce pan or dutch oven. Cut up chorizo into 1-inch cubes and saute until browned and cook through.

Remove chorizo and set aside. Add onions and kale into the same pot, then vinegar. I think you could add the kale without blanching it first and just cook it longer. I found that blanching it helped the "bite" of it quite a bit.

Add stock and water to cover kale mixture. Simmer and season with salt and pepper, heavily. Add the chorizo back into the pot and cook for 10-15 minutes.

Tally:

Great way to incorporate a leafy green into a meal

Homemade chorizo may not look as pretty, but at least I know what's in it

On hand spices, especially smoked paprika, make ground chicken a spicy delight

A Date with Soup

This soup has all the features I'm looking for in a meal: fast, full of veggie goodness, thrifty ingredients, filling. In short, my perfect lunch date.

** This photo looks like yellow mush. It's really more like orange mush. I tried.

Carrot Soup

Serves 1 nicely

1/2 small onion, finely chopped

1 teaspoon olive oil

1/2 inch fresh ginger, peeled and grated

1 c. baby carrots, sliced

1 c. chicken stock

1/2 pink grapefruit, membrane removed

Salt and pepper

In a saucepan, cook onion and ginger in olive oil over medium heat. When they start to smell great and look a little cooked, add carrots (I used baby carrots because that's what I usually buy for $1) followed by chicken stock.

A note: I make my own chicken stock not to be fancy pants about it, but as part of my no ingredient left behind program. That chicken I was picking apart last week? Its last bits and bones went into the stock, which I'll post about later. I like to freeze the stock in ice cube trays or in one cup measurements, since I rarely use one whole pot but rather throw it into multiple dishes.

Let the carrots simmer and when they are almost fully tender add the grapefruit. This is a subtle flavor, so you could try adding more, but I don't like overwhelming the carrots and ginger. Or skip the grapefruit altogether.

When the carrots are fully tender, turn off the stove and let the soup cool a little. Then transfer to a blender and puree or liquify. Me? I puree since I'm ok with a little more texture.

Return the mixture to the pan and simmer, adding salt and pepper to taste. I walked away and it thickened more than I wanted. Solution? I added about 1/4 c. water to the blender, ran it to gather up some of the soup that was left behind and added it to the saucepan. Bonus: the blender was that much easier to clean!

And then I got fancy...

I thought about veggie soups I'd had at restaurants and how they get dressed up. The answer:

Chive Oil

8 chives

1 1/2 Tablespoons walnut oil

Salt and pepper

I had never made chive oil and I couldn't believe how simple this was going to be. A little internet searching turned up a recipe on the Oprah site (not where I usually go for recipes, but it had the easiest instructions). The recipe from a book called The Conscious Cook is here. Did I follow all the steps? Of course not. Too many dirty dishes for my laziness.

Here's what I did instead: I didn't blanch the chives, I put them in a strainer, balanced it on top of the already steaming soup mixture and covered the strainer with tin foil. I let it sit there for about 1 minute and then removed the strainer from the heat and ran it under cool water from the tap.

Cut up the steamed chives and put in a mortar. Add the walnut oil and salt and pepper and then grind away. I was surprised at how quickly the oil turns a pretty green shade. Strain and drizzle on top of carrot soup.

The chive oil added a nice contrast to the spiciness of the carrot soup, looked pretty and made this an omega-3 rich dish.

Tally:

Veggie-tastic lunch

Bunny food that's spicy and filling

Pretty way to use up carrots and other leftover ingredients

Cheap and Cheerful

It's raining hard here today. Time to brighten this gray day up with some:

Yellow Pepper Curry Soup

There's no photo because my food photography skills are slim and certainly not good enough to capture the bright yellow color of this soup. So you'll just have to trust me -- it's pretty!

Serves 2 for smaller bowls, 1 for a large bowl

1 Tablespoon olive oil

1 small onion, finely chopped

2 ribs celery, finely chopped

1/2 inch fresh ginger, peeled and grated

1-1 1/2 cups roasted yellow peppers (1 large pepper)

1/4 teaspoon curry powder

1/3 c. 1 % milk (or what have you)

Salt and pepper to taste

Roasted Peppers: Now, this normally wouldn't be a budget-friendly ingredient. *However* Mr. Lemon and I happened upon a lovely feature of the gourmet grocery blocks from our house: the bargain produce bin. It is hit or miss, but this means we sometimes find veggie gold -- in this case about 12 yellow and red peppers in mid-March for $1.50. Some need a little love and trimming, which Mr. Lemon reminds me of often as I have sympathy for the discarded produce and tend to be too gentle. Poor abandoned peppers!

When we made this haul I roasted in bulk (400F for 30-40 minutes, or until the skin blackens; steam skins off by placing peppers in a paper bag or make a pouch with parchment paper; peel away skin when cool.) Since we had such a large bounty, I pureed the roast peppers and froze them in 1 cup portions for later use. Especially with the bargain bagged produce, because it is sometimes a bit, ahem, mature, it's good to use it quickly or process it in a way that it can be frozen.

1. Assemble the soup: In a saucepan over medium heat, saute the onion, celery and ginger in olive oil until the vegetables become translucent. It will start to smell very good!

2. Add the peppers! Today I dropped the frozen pepper puree right in the pot and let the stove do all the work, but I could easily have defrosted in the microwave. I'm a lazy chef, what can I say? If the peppers are in pieces and freshly roasted, just give them a quick chop and add them to the veggie mixture.

3. Blender time: Once the peppers are either fully melted or have sauteed with the other vegetables for about 3 minutes, take the mixture off the stove and transfer to a blender to puree. Today, since I used pureed pepper, I skipped this step and had some nice, slightly chunky soup. But if you like smooth, thick soups, the blender is the way to go. Personally, I like having something to chew on in my soups.

4. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan, add the curry powder, salt and pepper and bring to a simmer. Add milk and bring back up to simmer.

I add a dollop of plain yogurt in the center when I plate this and then swirl it into the soup. Usually I have Greek yogurt (my favorite!), but we recently have been leaning toward a less expensive brand. A little chopped cilantro also looks nice against the bright yellow of the soup.

Today I had just a tiny bit of a yogurt cheese dip I'd made for a dinner party on Sunday (a super easy recipe I'll post at some point!) I literally saved 1 Tablespoon of dip...saving even a little bit can go a long way in adding flavor and cutting down on waste. I once wondered that my beloved Grammy, who had lived through the Depression I, saved one single lima bean. Now I think of her when I put away even small servings of food and ingredients.

Tally:

Curry's spiciness plays nicely off the sweetness of the peppers

2-3 servings of vegetables, most of which I usually have on hand

Creaminess, but low in fat and very filling